76 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



But it does not follow that the whole of the blood-plasma 

 poured forth in any one region of the living fabric should 

 be exhausted in the process of nutrition or assimilation there 

 carried on. So much fibrin e, so much albumen, so much 

 saline matter are withdrawn from a given amount of blood- 

 plasma, but what becomes of the residue ? What more likely 

 than that, being absorbed by the radicles of the lymphatic 

 system, it is conveyed back to be again applied to use in re- 

 inforcing the circulating blood ? The near correspondence be- 

 tween the composition of the lymph and that of the blood- 

 plasma, is a strong evidence in favour of this view. 



Do the products of disintegrated solids nourish ? An- 

 other idea not so much in opposition to that just explained 

 as accessary to it, is still dwelt on by some physiologists,* 

 namely, that the substances derived from the unceasing 

 decomposition of the solids in the several acts of life are 

 new-modelled by the radicles of the lymphatics, and carried 

 back by them to aid a second time in recruiting the blood. 

 This is a remnant of the Hunterian doctrine of interstitial 

 absorption, which Hunter supposed to be performed solely 

 by the agency of the lymphatic vessels. It is an acknow- 

 ledged principle in physiology that every living part is con- 

 tinually undergoing disintegration during the acts of life in 

 which it is concerned. But this disintegration appears to 

 be complete. Thus, when a muscle contracts, a certain por- 

 tion of its tissue loses its vitality. But this loss of vitality 

 is not conceived to be mere physiological death, such as has 

 happened to the parts of animals exposed for sale as food in 

 the shambles. It is chemical or absolute death, produced 

 under the influence of oxygen supplied by the red particles 

 of the blood a death which implies the conversion of the 

 proximate principles of the part so circumstanced into their 



* Bennett, ' Outlines of Physiology,' p. 82. 



